Well, I have ten reasons. Sorta. And I want to share that ten reasons why I watch anime. It's not in proper order or anything.
Fanservice
Nah, I'm just kidding, it's not part of my list. I just mentioned it since fanservice seems to do a number on other viewers. For me though, not so much. In fact, any anime with too much of this kind of lessens my interest in an anime. Although fanservice often implied as anything sexual, it is not entirely about that.
Well, moving on to my real reason!
Storyline
First one is the storyline. We all know that anime has both a complex and twisted yet similar and simple plots.
Let's take Stein's;Gate for example. It's about time traveling and we've seen time traveling anime before, but nothing as thrilling and as suspense as this. I got hooked up after watching a few episodes. The first ones aren't at all interesting but in future episodes it's very important! So, an anime storyline is unique sometimes. Because we don't see it often in films or other works. They just turned your average time-traveling niche into a whole new level of action and thrill!
Another example is Detective Conan. It's not everyday you see a high school detective and is far better than the police or maybe see a teenager shrink back to a kid. No. Not normal, only seen in anime. While this anime is great, I just wish they wrap it up. I want to see teenage Shiho Miyano again. I know the mangaka Aoyama Gosho is actually doing research for his cases, there are just some episodes where I find it impossible to happen in real life. Still, the twist is good. And this is an iconic and nostalgic plot.
Then we also have Baccano. This anime would confuse us at first watch, so I had to re-watch it one or two more times to understand it. I enjoyed the whole show. I've seen similar settings on films (like Vantage Point and Hoodwinked) but this is significantly better than that. It's got a mix of goofing around, action-packed fighting scenes and unraveling mysteries. Each character has a goal and each of them stands out from the others. Like how we know who the odd couple who steals a door of a museum or a bunch of candies and how Mr. Standfield, the acrobatic legend fell in love with Chane. It's all original and awesome! It makes me sad that the anime was not picked up. I believe it was only animated for promotional purposes to promote the Light Novel.
Speaking of fight scenes...
Action/Fighting Scenes
Anime is rich in exceptional fighting scenes. They manage to make things up like Rasengan, Kamehame Wave, One Punch, Getsuga Tenshou and any more! Yeah, they name their attacks. And most of the time there's a 1-on-1 battle.
Take Naruto for example. There're tons of battles there. But of course among all battles there's always a best, a top, a memorable one. May it be emotional, horrifying or just amazing. Naruto VS Sasuke, a famous one. Tbh I don't like to see them fight coz they're friends but there's a reason behind their will to fight. Should I just watch them then? Yeah.
But it's not only in the world with magical powers that makes the fight scenes acceptable. There's also Black Lagoon. It may not be as realistic as it is but it's got a slice of life in poverty, in real missions, in the dark side of things. This anime is not afraid to show the cruel realty of life. Soldiers and gangs and mafia. This anime hits you real good because their characters are partly relatable and partly you can not fall in love with them female characters. There's also Canaan (although mixed with a little bit of scientific experiment), Psycho Pass (kinda futuristic) and Samurai X.
Anime is lovable for this but there is also a lot of funny memes on how slow-phased some of the battles or scenes were.
Adventures
I know, I know, shouldn't I include this under the storyline? I decided not to. Anime has this adventurous theme, and it's all fun. Why are adventures fun?
Let's take Hunter X Hunter this time.
Gon and Killua, the best of friends. Throughout the six seasons, they've been through a lot. To travel and pass the hunters exam, to visit the Zoldyck territory, to join the Heaven's Arena, to meet the Phantom Troupe, be a part of Greed Island, get involved with the Chimera Ant war and in the end, I'm sure adventure still awaits them. The kind of adventure, huh? We love it when we meet new characters and see our main ones get developed, we enjoy the lore and new settings.
There's also Naruto (kind of, depends on the missions I suppose), Chaika the Coffin Princess (a really good anime, whose plot I did not really appreciate but I love the adventures of Chaika and her gang), Pokemon (does the mission to catch all Pokemon gonna end anytime soon?) and Nanatsu No Taizai (if you're into adventure with a good fight scene and ecchi, this one's for you).
We've got similar settings and common tropes in an adventurer character set, but each anime always makes the experience different. It is up to preferenc to decide!
Friendship and Bond
Just like I mentioned with Gon and Killua, anime is also rich in a solid friendship. Take Ash Ketchum and Pikachu as my next example!
humans,Friendship works not only between two humans you know? Anime taught us that a bond can be formed even between a human and a non-human. As long as it's both a living matter. Erza and cake does not count!
We've seen many partnerships, colleagues and backstory friendship throughout the many released anime series and we've come to love all of them.
Ichigo and Zangetsu (Bleach | who does not love how this developed?), Naruto and Sasuke (Naruto | everyone knows this one, they are the icons of anime), Ruruka and Izayoi (Danganronpa | this is not the kind of friendship that I would approve or if it is even friendship att all), Goten and Trunks (Dragon Ball | these two are golden and I love how they are very close they are regardless of their fathers' history), Sango and Kirara (Inuyasha | childhood right here), Ryuko and Senketsu (Kill La Kill | this gives me an Ichigo and Zangetsu vibe but I guess Senketsu is more goofy) and many more! There's soooo many bonds in anime to name. Sometimes they're just touching and inspiring.
Sometimes there are even #friendshipgoals right?
Unique Personalities
Really now? They're unique? Of course! I'll name one for example. Who is known as a lady killer who kills men she likes? She sneezes and faints and changes personality but most of all she doesn't enjoy taking a bath? Any idea now?
That's right! Touko Fukawa from Danganronpa. She's hilarious and I'm glad she didn't die in Happy Trigger. I'm yet to watch the Future Despair Arc so...
Anyway, an anime has this spin on the characters because pretty much they are the ones we get attached to if we're to get hooked up watching a certain anime. How about... a clumsy female lead protagonist with glasses who loves bonsai? Yep.
"How unpleasant." Mirai Kuriyama! See? She's unique. There's also Chaika Tabrant in regards to fragmented sentences. There are many more memorable characters for us and there's always one or more memorable traits that helps us figure them out from the group.
There are terms like waifu and husbando because while they are fictional, they are dream waifu and husbando material. You can't not watch an anime, who stars your favorite character.
Awesome Art Styles
If we love anime, we draw them, right?
We get to learn to draw different eyes, different hair (which is somehow impossible to do in reality) but that's okay. Come on! You gotta love drawing 'em!
Yep their art escalates as time passes by. That's awesome eh? Hope our own talent in drawing improves as well!
Anime has inspired me to draw. A lot. Which is probably the reason why I started to draw in the first place. And also why my art style is influenced by anime.
Individualized Clothing Art
In order to make an anime character more appealing and more unique, they need awesome clothes right?
Of course designing them won't be easy because it has to match and/or fit their personality and their role. Clothes are also easy to remember and sometimes, when we like the character so much, we dress as them. Or cosplay.
When we see a kimono that's obviously from a Japanese show. But what if we see for example, a sailor moon uniform? Oh yes! It's from an anime! Obviously.. but what specific? A sailor moon uniform that could talk? Senketsu! What about a yellow spandex and a white cape? Uh.. Saitama? Yep. Clothes are important.
If you've seen Gintama, it's full of parodies and seeing familiar clothes like Goku's, you'll immediately get the idea it's him they're portraying. You get my idea. Moving on.
Animation Quality
Anime is cartoons. That true? WHO SAID THIS WAS CARTOONS?!
Other than the animation style, anime and cartoon differs. You won't find a bloody and gory cartoon like Another, will ya? Or probably a brutal slaughter when Titans attack? Nope, nope. If that were the case with cartoons, I would've been terrified when I was young!
The anime community is huge and anime even has its own genre! Like, if you search in Netflix, there is Anime as a separated tag or if you search a game in Steam, you will see that anime is a theme. And we all know that the only time a specific tag, section or category is available for "Anime" is because it's now a thing! Yes, like it's an official term and everyone knows it.
Inspiring Dialogue
There are always words than anime character says that we will remember. It probably struck a nerve or our hearts (or something) but the thing is, it's not everyday you see in movies dialogue like that. I mean, something that makes us say 'oh he's right!' or 'I never thought about it but he has a point'.
Here are some memorable quotes you may be surprised makes sense.
"You don't die for your friends, you live for them." Erza Scarlet (Fairy Tail - don't enrage her, she's cuter with a cake)
"To know sorrow is not terrifying. What is terrifying is to know you can't go back to happiness you could have." - Rangiku Matsumoto (Bleach - I love this character)
"Fear is not evil. It tells you what weakness is. And once you know your weakness, you can become stronger as well as kinder." - Gildarts (Fairy Tail)
"Whatever you lose, you'll find it again. But what you throw away you'll never get back." - Kenshin Himura (Samurai X - my brother watches this a lot)
"Fear is freedom! Subjugation is liberation! Contradiction is truth! Those are the facts of this world! And you will all surrender to them, you pigs in human clothing!" - Satsuki Kiryuin (Kill la Kill - I watched this once, and never again)
“It’s just pathetic to give up on something before you even give it a shot.” - Reiko Mikami (Another - I can't believe I watched this anime 3x, never again gonna hold an umbrella)
“If you win, you live. If you lose, you die. If you don’t fight, you can’t win.” - Eren Jaeger (Shingeki no Kyojin - urrgh, this used to be a great anime)
“People’s lives don’t end when they die, it ends when they lose faith.” - Itachi Uchiha (Naruto - does he care?)
“Thinking you’re no–good and worthless is the worst thing you can do.” - Nobita (Doraemon - childhood)
“Knowing you’re different is only the beginning. If you accept these differences you’ll be able to get past them and grow even closer.” - Miss Kobayashi (Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid - cute anime)
Fantastical Worlds
What is this? In the world of anime, there are universes.
Or maybe a virtual world like Sword Art Online. There's GGO, ALO, SAO and even Brain Burst. There's also Log Horizon to credit for Virtual worlds and Hack Sign. Can you imagine the kind of mind the mangakas have to actually come up with a world—worlds in their story?
If we're talking about dimension and all that stuff there's Mekaku City Actors, Pandora Hearts and Deadman Wonderland. These are great series, it's a bit confusing in some areas but as I rewatched to understand the concept and the plot of each of these anime, I came to love and understand the story.
What about worlds? Well, anime is rich in that too. They create worlds.
Talk about a Shinigami's world in Soul Society. There's also the world of Despair in Danganronpa (joke but I thought it was a good pun). A world mixed with historical stuff and a Holy Grail War like Fate. Even got parallel and alternate universes. Or even time traveling to change venue! Like Hitman Reborn.
Anime is creative! Can you imagine just how much effort and a lot of brainstorming into coming up with all these worlds to immerse us in once we begin watching the anime?
Complex Relations
With all the deres around and other personalities, this makes a relationship between two characters complex, odd and funny. It is not always about a romantic relationship. Seriously.
Sakurasao No Pet Kanojo (did I spell that right?) has a group of students living in a dorm and they have distinct personalities. Let's use Ryuunosuke and Rita as example. Ryuunosuke is this introvert but a tech genius and Rita is opposite but they have this spark between in each other that causes me to ship 'em!
There's also Touma Kamijou and Misaka Mikoto (from the Certain series) and they're just adorable. Starting off with saving the girl who doesn't need help, she challenges her savior but loses, he runs, she chases, he escapes, they see each other again and the cycle repeats.
Shipping is also strong in the anime community.
A detailed review and analysis on groups of friends and their characters even. Because there is a lot to talk about, a lot to learn about them, a lot to unravel there is also relatability to the characters.
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So there you have it! My top 11 reasons why I was driven to watch anime. What about you? What drives you to watch anime? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
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